I Died and Became a Noble's Heir

Chapter 561: True Name [Golden Ticket Chapter Bonus]

She began circling the table where Death still sat, her fingers trailing across the wooden surface.

”Tell me, have you revealed your true name to Jack yet? Does he know that his patron god, the mysterious Draven, who’s been guiding him with half-truths and hidden agendas, is actually Zeus? The king of Olympus himself, reduced to lurking in the divine realm and working through a mortal champion because he’s too afraid to act directly?”

Draven’s jaw clenched, storm clouds overhead intensifying as his fury threatened to erupt again. ”My name is my own business. Jack doesn’t need to know every detail of my past to benefit from my guidance.”

”Oh, but it would make things so much more interesting,” Stella replied, her tone carrying playful malice. ”Imagine his reaction when he learns his patron is Zeus, that the god helping him is the same one who betrayed his own brother out of fear. But more importantly, that Malakai brought him to this world because you asked him to? Do you think he’d continue trusting you? Continue accepting your blessings and following your carefully laid plans?”

She stopped circling, positioning herself directly across from Death while maintaining eye contact with Draven.

”Maybe I should tell him myself. During one of our intimate moments together, after he’s learned to love this body I’m wearing. ’Oh, by the way, darling, did you know Draven is actually Zeus, and he’s been manipulating you toward some cosmic destiny you don’t understand?’ That seems like pillow talk worth having.”

Death’s burning eye sockets tracked Stella’s movements, but he made no move to intervene or support Draven’s anger. His tone remained neutral when he finally spoke.

”Threatening to reveal Zeus’s identity to gain leverage is petty even by your standards, Stella. What do you actually want? Because I doubt you came here just to taunt your nephew and make rabbits.”

”I want you to leave Jack alone,” Stella stated, her playful demeanor giving way to something harder and more serious.

”Stop trying to guide him, stop feeding him fragments of Sarin’s power, stop whatever grand plan you’ve been building around him being some kind of cosmic replacement for your lost brother.”

Her demeanor transformed, revealing authentic sentiment beneath a facade of intense preoccupation.

”He’s mine. Sarin’s successor belongs to me, not to the gods who betrayed the original. I’ll be the one standing beside him when he achieves apotheosis, the one bearing his children, the one proving that loyalty matters more than survival.”

”You’re delusional,” Draven stated flatly, the storm overhead finally beginning to dissipate as he recognized the futility of continued aggression.

”Jack isn’t some prize to be claimed or tool to be wielded. He makes his own choices, follows his own path. Neither of us controls him.”

”Then we’ll see whose influence he chooses,” Stella replied, her smile returning with renewed intensity.

”The gods who cursed his fiancée and lied about his nature, or the devoted lover who wants nothing more than to support his greatness and create new life together.”

She turned toward the domain’s boundary, preparing to depart.

”I should go. I have so much to prepare. Revealing myself to Jack at the perfect moment, ensuring he understands how much I’ve sacrificed for this opportunity, making sure our first time together is absolutely perfect.”

”Stella,” Draven called out, his voice carrying warning despite recognizing he had no power to actually stop her.

”If you hurt him, if you force yourself on him against his will, if you do anything that crosses the line between obsession and assault...”

”You’ll what?” She interrupted, glancing back over her shoulder. ”Curse me again? Attack me directly? We both know you can’t actually stop me, Z. I’m not bound by the contract you made with the Primordials. I didn’t agree to cease creating worlds or limit my direct interference. I can act freely in ways you can’t, which means Jack is far more accessible to me than he is to you.”

Her demeanor exhibited a subtle shift, revealing an aspect that could be interpreted as genuine affection, were it not overshadowed by an unsettling intensity.

”But don’t worry. I won’t hurt him. I love him too much for that. Everything I do will be for his benefit, for his pleasure, for ensuring he achieves the destiny that Sarin never got to fulfill.”

”He’s not Sarin,” Death interjected, his tone carrying certainty. ”No matter how much you want him to be, no matter how many of Sarin’s techniques he recreates or how much God’s Blood he consumes. Jack Kaiser is his own person, and treating him like a replacement for someone you lost will only drive him away.”

Stella’s smile became almost sad, recognition that Death’s words carried truth she didn’t want to acknowledge.

”Maybe. But I’d rather have him as Sarin’s successor than not have him at all. And who knows? Perhaps being with me will help him embrace what he’s becoming rather than fighting it.”

She blew a kiss toward both gods, pink energy manifesting briefly before dispersing into sparkles that faded against the domain’s eternal afternoon light. ”Give my regards to Jack when you see him next. Tell him Aurora is thinking of him, missing him, counting the days until they can finally be together.”

Then she was gone, her presence vanishing from the domain as if she’d never been there.

Only the dozen rabbits remained as evidence of her visit, the creatures hopping around Draven’s grass with complete disregard for the cosmic drama that had just unfolded.

Draven stood there, stiff with barely hidden frustration.

”This is a disaster. If she reveals herself to Jack in Aurora’s body, if she forces some kind of romantic encounter before we can explain what actually happened...”

”Then we tell him first,” Death interrupted pragmatically. ”Before she has the chance. Explain about Stella’s possession, about your curse being designed to trap her rather than harm Aurora, about why keeping secrets seemed necessary at the time.”

”He won’t forgive me,” Draven stated quietly, the certainty in his voice carrying the weight of someone who’d already accepted an inevitable outcome. ”Finding out I cursed his fiancée, even with justification, even knowing it was targeting Stella rather than Aurora herself... he’ll see it as another betrayal, another lie in the foundation of our relationship.”

Death stood slowly, his massive frame unfolding from the chair with surprising grace.

”Perhaps. But he might forgive you eventually if you tell him the truth voluntarily. If Stella tells him first, wrapped in whatever narrative serves her obsession, then you’ll never regain his trust.”

He offered support by placing an armored hand on Draven’s shoulder, despite the gravity of the situation.

”You made choices millennia ago that haunt you. Made more choices recently that seemed necessary at the time. Now you get to make another choice. Continue hiding and hope it works out, or be honest and accept whatever consequences follow.”

Draven observed the location where Stella had been positioned, his thoughts occupied with evaluating strategies and potential outcomes, and with the growing conviction that all available options would lead to an undesirable outcome.

”When did divine politics become more complicated than cosmic warfare?”

”When we started caring about individual mortals rather than treating them as interchangeable pawns,” Death replied with dark humor.

”Once you care, everything becomes personal. And personal conflicts are always messier than abstract cosmic struggles.”